Jordan's Central Bank increases capital

Jordan's Cabinet agreed on Wednesday to boost capital for the Central Bank to $68 million.

The Cabinet [in Jordan] on Wednesday approved a decision to increase the capital of the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ)[2] to JD48 million ($68 million) upon a recommendation from its Economic Development Committee, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

During the session, headed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, the Cabinet agreed to add JD30 million ($42 million) to CBJ’s current JD18 million ($25 million) capital from the general reserves, which will be restructured as of end of this year so as to increase the reserves to JD96 million ($135 million), double the capital, to support the bank’s capital and reserves in the future.

As recommended by the committee, the Cabinet also decided to terminate CBJ supervision over the operations of the Cooperative Bank as the CBJ’s monitoring has been annulled under the 1997 Cooperation Law.

The Council of Ministers also approved to move ahead with waste-to-energy projects upon a proposal by the energy minister to start floating tenders to interested investors in the field on April 4, Petra reported.